Chapter 4 - THE BROTHER'S CONFESSION
Z
Adrian Voss looked smaller in a hospital bed.
Elena hated herself for noticing.
The private medical suite on the east side of the Moretti estate had been built after Dante's grandfather suffered a stroke. It had more equipment than some neighborhood clinics Elena had visited and two nurses who asked no questions.
Adrian lay beneath white sheets with a bullet wound through his right shoulder.
He had lost blood.
Not enough to kill him.
Enough to make him honest.
Maybe.
Elena stood beside the bed.
Dante remained near the window.
Luca guarded the door.
Helena had not been permitted inside.
Elena had asked for that.
She could only absorb one resurrection at a time.
Adrian opened his eyes.
“El.”
She hated the nickname.
Hated that hearing it still made something inside her soften.
“You hit me.”
He closed his eyes again.
“I know.”
“You came into the house where I work, dragged me into a conservatory, demanded a signature, and when I refused, you hit me.”
“I know.”
“Look at me.”
He did.
His face was gray with pain.
“You used to beat up kids who picked on me.”
“Elena—”
“You broke Marcus Klein's nose because he pushed me off a swing.”
“We were children.”
“You told me nobody got to hurt your sister.”
His eyes filled.
“Then you became everybody.”
The words landed.
Adrian looked away.
For several seconds, the only sound was the heart monitor.
Then he whispered, “I'm sorry.”
Elena almost laughed.
“That's remarkably efficient.”
“I didn't come to hurt you.”
“You brought transfer papers.”
“I came to get you out.”
“By making me sign away eighty million dollars?”
Dante spoke from the window.
“Closer to ninety.”
Adrian looked at him.
Fear entered his face.
It was the first honest thing Elena had seen from him.
“Dante Moretti.”
“Adrian.”
“Bellini said you didn't know.”
“Bellini is having a difficult evening.”
Adrian swallowed.
Elena stepped closer.
“You said I'm not Gabriel's daughter.”
Adrian looked at her.
“You heard that.”
“I hear most things said about my biological identity.”
“El...”
“Who is my father?”
He closed his eyes.
“Adrian.”
“Marco.”
The room stopped.
Elena stared at him.
“No.”
Adrian's voice cracked.
“Marco Bellini is your biological father.”
She laughed.
Not because it was funny.
Because some truths are too large for the body to process correctly.
“No.”
“Our mother had an affair with him.”
“No.”
“It wasn't simple.”
“Stop saying no” would have been cruel.
Adrian did not say it.
Elena backed away.
Dante moved subtly closer but didn't touch her.
She stared at Adrian.
“You're lying.”
“I wish I was.”
“Gabriel raised me.”
“Yes.”
“He loved me.”
“Yes.”
“He was my father.”
“Yes.”
“Then don't call Marco anything else.”
Adrian nodded.
Tears slid into his hair.
“Okay.”
Elena turned away.
The room blurred.
Every childhood memory suddenly seemed contaminated by information she had never asked for.
Gabriel teaching her to ride a bicycle.
Gabriel wrapping Christmas presents badly.
Gabriel sitting on the kitchen floor with her after she failed eighth-grade algebra.
Had he known?
“Did Gabriel know?”
“Yes.”
She closed her eyes.
“And he still raised me.”
“Yes.”
Something inside her steadied.
Good.
Blood could go to hell.
She turned back.
“Why does Marco want me?”
Adrian stared at the ceiling.
“Because legally, you're still Gabriel's daughter.”
“The trust.”
“Yes.”
“Did Marco know that when the trust was created?”
“No.”
“Does he know now?”
“Yes.”
“How?”
Adrian looked at Dante.
“Because I told him.”
Elena slapped him.
This time nobody stopped her.
His head turned on the pillow.
The monitor jumped.
A nurse took one step forward.
Dante raised a hand.
She stopped.
Adrian looked back at Elena.
Blood appeared at the corner of his lip where he'd bitten it.
“I deserved that.”
“You deserve worse.”
“I know.”
“Why?”
“Because he had Mom.”
Elena froze.
“What?”
“Not dead. Hidden. I didn't know where.”
His voice came faster now.
“Marco found me when I was seventeen. He showed me pictures of her alive. Said if I worked for him, she stayed alive. If I ran, she died. If I told you, you died too.”
Elena's anger faltered.
“Why didn't you come to me later?”
“Because later I owed him.”
“What?”
Adrian laughed bitterly.
“Money. Favors. Bodies.”
Elena stared.
He continued.
“The first things were small. Deliver envelopes. Watch a building. Put a name on a lease. By the time I understood what he was doing, I couldn't walk away.”
Dante finally spoke.
“Bellini doesn't keep people because they owe him. He keeps them because they believe they do.”
Adrian gave him a tired look.
“Easy to say when you're Dante Moretti.”
“No,” Dante said. “Easier.”
The answer surprised Elena.
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Marco knows you're his daughter. He found out when Gabriel died. He hated that Gabriel had raised you. Hated that the law considered you Gabriel's heir.”
“Then why not kill me?”
“Because your signature is more valuable than your death.”
Dante stepped forward.
“Unless she dies intestate.”
Adrian's eyes opened.
“Exactly.”
Elena's skin went cold.
“What happens then?”
Dante answered.
“Your share passes according to the trust's survivorship clause.”
“To Adrian?”
Adrian's face said everything.
Elena stared.
“You were supposed to inherit it.”
“No.”
“You came here to force me to sign. If I refused—”
“I was supposed to take you to Marco.”
“And if I fought?”
Adrian looked away.
Elena's voice dropped.
“What were you supposed to do?”
He whispered, “Make it look like you ran.”
No one moved.
Dante's face changed completely.
The calm did not disappear.
It hardened.
That was worse.
Adrian looked at him.
“I didn't.”
“You hit her.”
“I lost control.”
Dante stepped closer.
Adrian flinched.
Elena moved between them instinctively.
Dante stopped.
He looked at her.
She realized what she'd done.
Protected the brother who had struck her.
Dante's jaw tightened.
But he backed away.
Elena turned to Adrian.
“Who shot you?”
“I don't know.”
“You didn't see?”
“I saw a shadow near the wall.”
“Man or woman?”
“Man.”
“Staff?”
“Maybe.”
Dante glanced at Luca.
Luca left immediately.
Elena kept going.
“Why come tonight?”
“Marco's deadline.”
“For what?”
Adrian swallowed.
“The Moretti board vote.”
Dante's eyes narrowed.
“What board vote?”
“Tomorrow night.”
“There is no board vote tomorrow.”
Adrian looked at him.
“Yes, there is.”
Dante went still.
“Emergency governance clause.”
Adrian nodded.
“Marco has six signatures already.”
Dante's face became unreadable.
“What is he voting on?”
Adrian looked at Elena.
“To remove Dante as managing chairman.”
The room seemed to contract.
Elena frowned.
“How?”
Dante answered her.
“If Bellini proves I exposed the trust to criminal liability, the trustees can suspend my authority.”
“Did you?”
“No.”
Adrian laughed weakly.
“He has documents saying you did.”
“Forgeries?”
“Some.”
“And the rest?”
Adrian's eyes moved to the floor.
“Provided by someone inside your company.”
Dante said nothing.
But Luca had returned to the doorway.
He had heard.
“Who?” Dante asked.
Adrian looked afraid again.
Not of Dante.
Of saying the name.
“Tell him,” Elena said.
Adrian closed his eyes.
“Celeste Moretti.”
Dante's sister.
The one person in the Moretti family everyone described as untouchable.
Dante's expression did not change.
Yet Elena understood immediately that Adrian had finally said something capable of hurting him.
Then Luca's phone vibrated.
He read the message.
“Dante.”
“What?”
“Celeste isn't in her room.”
A second message arrived.
Luca looked up.
“And one of the estate cars is gone.”
Adrian turned pale.
“She knows we found out.”
Dante walked to the door.
Elena grabbed his arm.
He stopped.
“Where are you going?”
“To find my sister.”
“Alone?”
Dante looked down at her hand on his arm.
Then back at her face.
“No.”
May you like
He covered her fingers with his.
“Not anymore.”
